


After Everything

by Exbloodjunkie



Category: Doctor Who, Torchwood
Genre: Angst, The Year That Never Was, mentions of toture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-25
Updated: 2014-01-25
Packaged: 2018-01-09 23:11:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1151918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Exbloodjunkie/pseuds/Exbloodjunkie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set after season three of Torchwood, The Doctor finds a distraught Jack.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

The Doctor, ran his hand through his hair, mussing it up, he straightened his long brown coat entered the pub, creatures of all shapes and sizes walked there, there was a time when The Doctor could come to a bar like this and not know half of the species, but those days were long gone, The Doctor heaved a wary sigh, longing for those days of innocence and exploration. He missed her, Rose that is, he always thought of Rose when he lost someone, after he had killed everyone he loved, after he was doomed to an eternity of knowing what sort of monster he was, she had been the first he had lost. Donna still lived, but she was gone to him, he hoped so hard that she would do extraordinary things with her life because she was bloody extraordinary, he hated that she would never realise this. It had been a few weeks since he had returned her home, but he had seen no one who would be a suitable companion, not that he was really looking he didn't want to lose someone again.  
It was as he walked towards the bar that he saw him, a familiar face. Everything that was time lord in The Doctor detested Jack, he was literally repulsed by him, never wanting to be to close to Jack, he was /wrong/, every bit of Time Lord in The Doctor screamed that.  
But there was something more than time lord in The Doctor, something animalistic, without thought of consequence, something so very human, that wasn't repulsed by the man whose blue eyes had just rested upon The Doctor in front of him, something that saw good and kindness in the man that was so filled with despair.  
"Doctor!" Jack called, once the time lord made his way over, the immortal man asked, "What are you doing here?" From the look on Jack's face he was slightly drunk, and slightly was optimistic, the blue eyed man's face crumpled when The Doctor just stared at him, honey brown eyes surveying the intoxicated man. "You heard about what I did, didn't you? ... Are you - are you here to kill me?" The Doctor had no clue what Jack was talking about, but if he thought that the time lord would kill him for it then it certainly couldn't of been good.  
The Doctor decided that it would be better to talk to the impossible man in private. "Come on Jack, let's go back to the TARDIS."  
Jack followed The Doctor numbly, relief went through him, The Doctor was going to end it, end all this and Jack could just die in peace.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Doctor was connected to the TARDIS, the pair - in some ways- was the most romantic love story of them all, an unlikely couple running from a world with overbearing rulers to explore the universe together, they were soul mates even though there weren't /in/ love with each other. And The Doctor felt the TARDIS, felt her complain, felt how though she didn't hate Jack, she thought him to be wrong, and he couldn't help but agree, but this wasn't about him or the TARDIS, this was about Jack, a man who had never asked to be the way he was.

The Doctor lead Jack into the TARDIS, going straight past the control centre, down an isle, where the TARDIS, provided what looked like a more comfortable version of a medical doctor's space, lining the left side of the room and half the front, before it was interrupted by the door, were shelves with various medical equipment, from all stages of the worlds devolvement, some not even of earth. There was a bed pressed against the back right hand corner of the room, and a medically clean steel table in the middle, tall enough for a man of Jack's height to sit and be just below eye level with The Doctor.

Jack went automatically to the table, and sat down on it, the steel was cold and unforgiving, he couldn't help feeling like he was a dog at the vet about to be put down, what a way to die.  
But The Doctor didn't rummage around for a syringe or something that could make an immortal man very very mortal, no he just leant on the door frame, eyes studying Jack, concern written over his handsome face, Jack tried his best not to squirm under the rather piercing gaze of the time lord, but it was harder than one may think, to watch your hero, the man you have looked up to for centuries stare at you after all that you've done. Steven's piercing shrieks filled Jack's head, 'Don't forget me,' Ianto begged, oh god he should of known not to start drinking, known that it would make it impossible to force out those memories.  
"What happened Jack?" The Doctor stared at this broken man and he could hardly believe it was the same man he and Rose had met all those years ago.  
The alcohol induced fog in Jack's brain made it hard for him to realise what The Doctor was asking him, meant it took a while for the immortal man to realise that the time lord didn't know what Jack had done.

It didn't take over nine hundred years of traveling through all of space and time for The Doctor to realise just how much Jack didn't want to go into that conversation, while the time lord never payed much attention to the passing of time (Why should he? He could make it any time he wished.) he was aware that it was late for Jack, not to mention he was distraught and rather drunk. There would be time to find out what had happened later. "Jack," the immortal man was crying now, gaze fixed resolutely on the plastic floor, "Jack, look at me." Blue, blood shot eyes met hazel brown ones, "Just go to sleep now, we'll talk later, okay?"  
A weak nod followed the Doctor's words, and the brown eyed man left the room.


	2. Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I also added a paragraph to the last chapter so before you read this you should probably read that. Also thank you for reading, comments, whether praise or critisim, are always appreciated.

The Doctor hadn't seen Jack since the year that never happened, he hadn't seen Jack since he had started to fix up the TARDIS, he had been selfish about seeing Jack, the face reminded him of that year and he didn't want to be reminded, didn't want to have to think about all he had seen, all that had been lost, but where The Doctor had been forced to watch people get tortured, Jack had been tortured, unrelentingly so, where The Doctor was repulsed by Jack's immortality The Master was intrigued, and what better subject to test all the different methods of torture that the universe had to offer but the one person who couldn't die? The Doctor had watched as Jack was skinned, or stretched until his bones popped out of his sockets, had watched him scream as his feet and hands were burnt off, watched his eyes roll back into his head as cage full of rats was placed on his stomach and when a fire was set the rats escaped the only way they could, by burrowing through Jack's stomach. Watching this had been its own torture but going though it must of been so must worse and after they escaped, after they saved the world, The Doctor had just left Jack to his own devices.

 

 

Jack couldn't remember falling asleep, in all honesty he could only partly remember what had happened the night before, just that The Doctor had been there and he didn't know, didn't know something, what didn't he know? As far as Jack knew The Doctor knew pretty much everything there was to know. As if on cue The Doctor opened the door holding a plate of eggs and bacon, "The TARDIS told me you were awake."

Jack would never get used to the TARDIS, it was impossible to draw a line between living and dead with the ship.

When Jack was once again seated on the table, with a plate of eggs and bacon on his lap and the time lord beside him this time, The Doctor asked, "What happened Jack?" The immortal man froze, his hands clenching around the cutlery in his hands, the metal digging into his palms.

That's what The Doctor didn't know, Jack placed the cutlery on the half full plate, and put that down next to him, the ceramic plate seemed to make an obscenely loud noise as it connected with the metal table in the silence of the room, before clasping his hands together nervously, "Ianto." He whispered quietly, The Doctor hadn't directly met Ianto but he remembered seeing the Welsh man through the camera, remembered Jack kissing him.

And then, after the realisation that Jack lost the person he loved most sunk in, Jack took a deep breath, "And Steven, I killed him, I killed my own grandson." The immortal man's voice shook as the words came out of his mouth.  _Monstermonstermonster,_ the words rang in Jack's head, because it was true, what sort of man would kill a little kid like that? The Doctor didn't know how to react to this news, the death of Ianto was one thing, The Doctor too had lost some one he loved, but Steven, killing your own grandson?

The Doctor couldn't help the little wave of repulsion that hit him, but it was clear that it had been necessary, it wouldn't of broken Jack like it had if he had done it out of cruelty, but what scenario could cause the need for one to kill a child? Images of screaming children running through the burnt out streets of Gallifrey leapt into his brain, after all he had done, who was The Doctor to judge? "Was there any other choice?" The Doctor asked him, voice gentle, trying to rationalise with Jack, not that the murder of a child could ever truly be rationalised.

"There's always a choice," Jack mumbled towards the ground, his hands, even clenched together, where trembling, _don'tcrydon'tcrydon'tcry,_ he repeated the mantra in his head.

"And what would of happened if you had picked the other choice?"

Jack couldn't believe The Doctor, _his_  Doctor would condone killing a child, for _any_  reason, but he forced himself to remember that Steven's death had been what had saved millions upon millions of children's lives. "The 456 would of taken ten percent of the world's population of children." The words came out dry, matter of fact, much better than the shaky voice of a man close to tears, this is what Jack had to become again, cold, distant, so nothing could hurt him, he had grown to attached, to Tosh, to Own, to Ianto, to Steven and it had got him nowhere, a man like him couldn't develop attachments.

The brown eyed man wrapped an arm around Jack's shoulders, pulling the man in for a hug, "You did your best, Jack."

 


End file.
